REVIVING THE MOVIE MUSICAL

Saturday, April 29----While we may never get back to the heyday of the film musical, when films with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly or Judy Garland were regular staples, the movie musical is, belatedly, making a mini-comeback. Spurred by the success of MOULIN ROUGE and CHICAGO, the musical drama is sprouting not just in America, but in Asia as well. Tonight's Festival Centerpiece Film, actor/director John Turturro's ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES is another ambitious attempt to bring back the magic of the movie musical.

While James Galdofini (THE SOPRANOS) is no Fred Astaire, and no one could mistake Susan Sarandon for Judy Garland, the two actors gamely head an eclectic cast in Turturro's drama with music. The sparking supporting cast includes Kate Winslet, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Walken, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro, Mary-Louise Parker, Eddie Izzard and Broadway diva Elaine Stritch.

Filled with music by Dusty Springfield, James Brown and even Engelbert Humperdinck, Turturro's musical is more karaoke than Kelly, but is full of wacky musical numbers that deepen the story of a working-class Queens, NY couple who are breaking up. The film rather predictably moves forward towards a reconciliation, but what is a movie musical without a faked tagged-on happy ending? That the film is being released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the giant of the classic movie musicals, has its own symmetry.

Another American film that combines drama, comedy and musical numbers is the Festival's Closing Night Film, Robert Altman's PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION. This film has one of the strangest casts in memory, but Altman the master has a deft hand in mixing and matching characters on screen with great humor and resonance.
Based on the popular and long-running National Public Radio program, set in the mournful hamlet of Lake Woebegon, Minnesota, the film boasts the singular talents of Meryl Streep in her first on-screen singing gig since Mike Nichol's POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE), Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Lindsey Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Matthew Modine, Robin Williams and Lily Tomlin. Wow....

Surprisingly (but then again, not), the largest number of musical films hail from Asia. Of course, there is a long tradition in Bollywood and other Asian film cultures for films with extensive musical elements. However, the titles being shown in the Festival leave behind the fantasy neverland atmosphere that usually accompanied those films, in favor of a harder-edge realism. The musical numbers represent emotional transitions and aspirations of the characters.....the repressed longing to break into song. This gives even the sunniest musical sequences an undertow of emotional distress and desperation.

The Festival's Opening Night Film, PERHAPS LOVE, is an eye-popping musical event that recalls the films of Jacques Demy (UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG) peppered with Baz Luhrmann's flair for the dramatic in films like MOULIN ROUGE. The films stars an amazing pan-Asian cast led by Hong Kong hearthrob Andy Lau, with outrageous choreography by Bollywood's Farah Kahn. It is a film of divine excess.

A more traditional musical is the historical pagaent PRINCESS RACCOON, from Japanese director Seijun Suzuki. The film stars Zhiyi Zhang (MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA) as a princess who tries to unite with her prince, in spite of fate and family objections. The music, everything from Hawaiin to rap to progressive rocki, with dancing that includes traditional moves to tap to moon-walking, brings the traditional structure of fantasy-cum-romance films of the past into a radically new interpretation. A bit over the top, but what else would one expect from this Kabuki-meets-Carnivale concoction.

Another film that flirts with the notorious is THE WAYWARD CLOUD, which could accurately be described as the first Asian porn musical. In Tsai Ming-liang's hallucinatory story, a young porn actor (who engages in realistic on-screen sex with a number of partners) is strangely drawn to an enigmatic young woman.

Harsh dramatic scenes and full-on hardcore sex sequences are mixed with romantic ballads and cast-of-hundreds dance extravaganzas in a melting pot of fantasy, neo-realism and contemporary love story. The director's observant eye on the alientation of modern life is tempered with the lush muscial interludes filled with emotion and longing.

The movie musical, all grown up, is in great evidence as the San Francisco International Film Festival passes its mid-point mark.